Past, Present, Future, Darkness
by merc142
Summary: Based on "Beyond Good and Evil." "He's not an idiot. He's not going to hurt either of us." Reopening the Lawrie case has ramifications that no one saw coming. No one except Robbie. Please read and review so I know that it is ok enough to post the rest. n hiatus while I get and recovery from elbow surgery.
1. Chapter 1

**Please review. Since this is my first fanfic it would be really helpful. Thank you**

\m/

"I didn't put away the wrong man."

Robbie seethed. He felt as if everyone was against him, like he was the only sane person in the department. Why wasn't anyone listening to him? Hathaway had turned that statement over to the defence team and he knew what that meant: Lawrie was getting out. He felt betrayed, sure enough. Rationally, he knew that it was the proper, _legal_, thing to do. God knows he had many of these discussions he had with Morse, usually with Morse arguing with him just as he had with Hathaway. When had he become Morse? But, Hathaway. It felt like James didn't trust him, after all of their years together.

Right now, he had to think about Laura. Lawrie wasn't out yet, but it would only be a matter of time. That text message had sent a shiver up his spine and made his balls clench. And, when Lawrie had asked about Laura…he knew what Lawrie was playing at. Laura was right, Graham Lawrie was trying to drive him mad. But, he had threatened her. Can't they see how dangerous Lawrie is? He killed three, no four, coppers.

Lewis was going to go home and pack, and whether Laura liked it or not, he was getting her away. She will argue. She will most likely be angry with him. And when he insisted and got angry back, and he would if necessary if that meant she was safe, she would, what, leave him? He feared that more than anything, except for Lawrie coming after her. Leave him or not, she would be safe.

It was already dark when he parked in front of the home he shared with Laura. He felt as if he were looking at it for the first and last time. As if he was perched on the edge of something with a deep, lightless chasm below. Like everything was about to change. He went inside, dropped his keys on the table and hopped the stairs two at a time. When was the last time he had told her that he loved her? He dug around in his memories. Two nights before, when they had made love and she had held him tight against her and he had stroked her hair. He closed his eyes and remembered the feeling of her as she arched against him and he kissed her neck and whispered in her ear and softened their moans with his mouth over hers. He didn't say it often enough. He didn't. He was a man acting like a stereotypical man instead of saying it: that he loved her so very much. He didn't think that would ever happen again, but it had.

As he pulled Laura's suitcase down and laid it on their bed, he vowed to change that. If she would have anything to do with him after this, that is. No, he thought quickly, he will make it right. He will make sure she is safe and then he would make it right.

\m/

Hathaway had looked for Robbie after he had turned the alibi statement over to Lawrie's solicitor. He wanted to talk with Robbie again and try to explain. His boss…not his boss, anymore…_his colleague_ had been angry and upset when he had left. Hathaway had seen him like that before. He could remember the look of betrayal that flashed in his then boss's eyes when he had discovered James had lied to him about a case and how he had turned from him, walking away. That look was seared into James' mind and he saw it again, today. He had been worked up at the time, but now Hathaway wanted to wilt just thinking of that look and what it meant for them as colleagues. As partners. As friends. As family. As he thought of each step describing their relationship, James started to worry more, each level presenting problems in his mind. Robbie was his family, and that is what he feared the most. Losing that. Over a fucking piece of paper.

They had managed to clear things up, before, hadn't they, then? Sure, he had nearly died in a fire, but Robbie had come through, because that was Robbie Lewis. He always came through. He was always there. Solid. A rock. A passionate rock that had looked at him with the look of betrayal and disbelief that had bore into James' very existence. Then, a very much afraid rock as he read the text off the phone.

This felt different than before. Like an unravelling in their relationship. An unraveling of reality. Like he could just wake up tomorrow and it would be like old times and this would have been something that had never happened. Before Robbie left. Before his promotion. Before Lawrie. The two of them sitting at the pub, James drinking orange juice. James looked up to Robbie, no doubt. He was more than a friend, more than a mentor. Robbie Lewis had been a major part of Hathaway's life for a decade, now. He and Laura were his _family._ Robbie was, he admitted to himself, like a father. More like a father than his own. Yes, Robbie was solid, dependable, and always knew how to make sure James stayed straight on the path he had chosen. He needed to talk to him, _desperately. _James decided that since he couldn't find him, he would go talk to Laura.

\m/

Robbie had taken off his dress shirt, socks and shoes and was debating whether to simply put on fresh clothes or hit the shower. He stood motionless for what seemed like an hour but, after looking at his watch, found it had only been minutes. He was stood at their bed, staring at it, recent memories flooding his mind and zipping through so fast he had trouble singling any one out. What was he doing, again? Yeah, shower or not? His undershirt was damp with fear-sweat and he decided on the shower.

He untucked his shirt from his trousers, reached for his belt buckle, and froze when he heard rustling from downstairs. He looked at the clock, 7:14pm. He took a deep breath and steadied himself against the argument to come. He hadn't decided on where he was taking her, yet. Lynn and family was in Australia, visiting Ken, which, he thought, was something he sorely needed to do himself. Why hadn't he done that? What was so important that he couldn't tear himself away to go see his son? It all seemed ridiculous, now. How unimportant all the things he would have sworn were most important in his life were. So meaningless. His family. Laura. He would do anything to keep her safe, and when he did, they would be okay. He would go see his daughter, and his son.

They would all spend time together away from Oxford. Away from the depths of depravity and murder that he thought was so much a part of him. He had to let that go, get that off of his soul, become human again. Be like all of those clueless blokes walking around with their families, sat in front of the telly. Almost like he had been before, but without the dark stain of his job seeping into everything he said and did. He tried to keep that away from Val, but after she had gone, he had stopped trying. He had embraced it, let it in, wallowed in it and becoming friends with it. It was a part of him, like an arm, and he couldn't see himself living without it. But, by god, he was going to try.

He turned to walk down the stairs to the sitting room and doubt started to cloud his thoughts. His stomach flipped. Did he actually think she would go with him? How was he going to say this? A thousand scenarios went through his head and he tried to pick the one he thought had the best chance of working. Did he really think he was going to get Laura to go away? Wishful thinking. He knew it was unlikely, but he would do his damn-level best. Wishful thinking was the only plan he had. He had just registered that the lights were still out downstairs when the blow to his head dropped him to his knees.

\m/

Laura came out of the lab just in time to see James enter. She smiled. James smiled back, wearily. "Laura, do you have a few minutes?"

She smiled again and shrugged. "He's already come to see me James, trying to get me to take a holiday." She leaned against the sink, drying her hands. "He was upset with me, I'm afraid. He is really taking all of this badly." And why shouldn't he, she thought. The pressure on him has to be enormous.

Hathaway took a deep breath. "I'm afraid he's none too happy with me at the moment, either." He recounted what had happened. "I've," he started, then corrected himself, "We've known him a very long time. He is the best policeman I have known, and the most honest. I can't believe that he would intentionally do anything dishonest. Unless it were for a good reason." Hathaway wasn't even sure that was true. Robbie Lewis, breaking the rules for _any_ reason? It didn't fit, but yet, it did, in his mind, and he was conflicted. What would Robbie Lewis do to protect his fellow policemen? Laura?

Laura nodded, "You know, you are Robbie are much more alike than you think." She thought briefly back to the young Detective Sergeant Lewis with the easy lop-sided smile. The only one willing to go against Morse. The only one Morse would listen to, and, even then, the stubborn Chief Inspector would grouse his way into eventual compliance with what he knew was right, what Robbie had insisted on. The check against Morse's sometimes-stilted balance. "This case was rough on all of us, especially Robbie."

"Laura, is it possible that Robbie…"

She cut him off. "No. I know what you want to ask and the answer is no. Lawrie is a psychopath. He is exactly where he belongs, however things look." She paused, thinking back to the x-ray she had showed him. The identical wound. She could remember the case before. How it had affected them all. Robbie, feeling responsible as he sat at the funerals. She looked at James, "You know, psychopaths have fans, especially the famous ones."

Hathaway nodded as a lab assistant entered. Laura patted his arm reassuringly. "I'm about to go home and we will talk. He'll come around, James. Maybe you both need to find some middle ground and talk, as well." James nodded. He would sit down with Robbie tomorrow, alone, and hash this out, think this out, figure this out. It was best they took a breath and let both their heads cool.

\m/

Laura parked next to Robbie and shut off the engine. She had gotten take-away curries and a bottle of red wine. They loved just sitting and trading bites of food and drinking and talking about their day. It was the best time of her life. She was looking forward to the evening, but not to Robbie's worrying. They would talk that out first thing and get on with it. They would sit, eat, laugh, drink, love. She frowned at the dark house. All the lights were off. Robbie didn't generally go to bed early. She went to the door and tried the knob. Unlocked. That definitely wasn't like him; to go to bed with the door unlocked, especially in the current climate. Maybe he was sick or, sitting in the dark, drinking brandy, which would be even worse, and thoughts about what he might be doing zipped past her mind's eye. She began to feel cold and her scalp tickled. She knew something was wrong but couldn't stop herself from going into the darkness. She opened the door and turned on the lights. As she walked into the house she spotted a darkness on the floor. She frowned, turned on the table lamp, and gasped as she dropped the bag of food and the wine bottle shattered on the floor.

\m/

Hathaway's mobile rang. He was tempted to ignore it as he stared at the paperwork on his desk. All hands were on deck at the station, and he couldn't focus on what tasks needed to be done to help solve this mess. Innocent was going around the floor, talking with everyone, trying to get a handle on the chaos. He looked at the caller's name on the phone screen. It rang again and he answered. "Dr. Hobson." He sat straight up when he heard her sob. She was trying to explain something through her tears. "Laura, calm down, tell me what's happening." He ran to the door and waved, and then snapped his fingers to get Innocent's attention as she talked with another officer. He heard Laura blow out a breath and try to slow her breathing. "James, I came home and Robbie's gone. There's blood, everywhere. His car is here but he's gone."

A biting cold gripped Hathaway's stomach and he nearly dropped the phone. "Ok, Laura, we are on the way, ok?" At Innocent's questioning glance he put the phone against his chest. "Something has happened to Robbie. He's gone and there's blood at their house." Innocent moved away to begin snapping orders. "All right, we will be there in just a few." He shouted at her too loudly, his heart pounding, breath coming in ragged gasps. He forced himself to be calm as he ran to his car.

"Please, James, hurry." She sobbed and dropped her hand from her ear without ending the call. She knew there was a lot of blood, and it was spattered and sprinkled and pooling all over the entry and the stairs. She had run upstairs and seen Robbie's shirt and shoes and the suitcase on the bed. No blood, no Robbie. She had then walked back to the stairs and looked down. Blood on the stairs, on the wall. A hand print, a smear. She stepped over the stains and try to calm herself and imagine she was at just another crime scene. She saw something in one of the darker pools of blood on the floor, a white piece of something stuck to the drying mess. She walked back to the door and nearly lost all ability to stand as she stared at the bone-white tooth laying in the blood.

Stay out of the crime scene, don't mess with the evidence. Be professional.

Fuck professional. She sat on the floor by the door and cried.


	2. Chapter 2

**Please review. This is my first fanfic and it would be really helpful.**

\m/

Hathaway nearly forgot to put his car in park as he slid to a stop among the emergency vehicles in front of the house. Laura was talking with a uniform that had just arrived. He rushed up to her, breathless. "Are you all right? Ok?" He barely held her long enough for her to nod at his question before running in the door. He called out, "Robbie!" He knew Laura was right. He was gone. But a small bit of him hoped he would be sitting in the house, just wondering what the hell the fuss was about. James he bounded up the steps and looked around wildly, trying to calm himself and figure out what to do. Robbie's phone lay on the bed and he grabbed it, looking for any calls. Two missed calls from Lyn. There was the message from Lawrie. And…nothing else. _Lyn. Fuck._

He ran back down the stairs, looked down and paused at the streaks of blood on the floor, starting from just in front of the stairs. They looked like drag marks and his temper flared and his stomach lurched. He stepped over them and saw the pool of blood on the floor. Was that a tooth? The handprints, scuff marks. He couldn't read the blood like SOCO, but he knew there had been a fight, and Robbie had lost. He felt panic welling up and the room began to spin. He fought to steady his breathing.

He ran his hands through his hair, went back out to Laura, and pulled her to him. "Are you sure you're okay?" She sniffed and nodded. She wiped her face and looked up at him, pleading. "I should have…I told him he was overreacting. And now…" she sobbed in Hathaway's arms. "He's hurt, James, and I can't do anything about it. What if they…?" she paused. A new wave of coldness washed over her insides. The look on Robbie's face as he begged her to leave. "I have to DO something." How he must have felt just like she did right now. She had placed her hand on his thigh and told him he would have to let it go. She nearly crumpled and backed up to lean against a car.

"He's alive Laura. They wouldn't have taken him if he wasn't." He wasn't so sure of that but he tried to make Laura believe that he was. _Why shouldn't he, if he's innocent?_ The words spun in his head, the last conversation he had said to Robbie. After seeing Lawrie at the prison this afternoon, he knew Lewis had been right. He clenched his teeth, "Lawrie. He may not have done it personally, but he knows who did. And he knows he is getting out." Innocent stopped him. "Graham Lawrie is still in custody, James." She tried to calm the situation. "SOCO is here, they will help us figure this out. But, I need you to stay with Laura and let them do their job."

"How can you not be angry?" Her veneer of calmness was pissing him off. "He took Robbie," he slowly spat the words out as if she wasn't aware of the situation. "It was Lawrie, and I just gave him a ticket out of prison." His anger slowly turned from Innocent to himself and suddenly he knew that it wasn't the missing statement, it wasn't the alibi. It wasn't the matching wounds and the chance that Graham Lawrie was innocent. It was the fact that he had chosen this to stand his ground. This was the mountain he had chosen to die on. He wanted to prove to everyone that he had earned his place and that he could make decisions, too, dammit. He wanted to strut his shit instead of taking a step back and looking at everything one more time. He had done this.

Innocent brought him back to focus. "Not angry? You goddamned right I am angry. I am scared to death right now. But, I have to deal with this rationally, or we won't get him back." Innocent took a long breath and let it out slowly. "We are not blaming ourselves or each other. Now's not the time for self-pity or self-realization." Innocent was drilling that last command into James' head. "We are going to slow down, figure this out, and get him home."

James didn't answer. Instead, he showed Robbie's phone to Laura. Realization dawned as she saw the missed calls from his daughter. "Oh, no."

\m/

James rested his head in his hands and decided to go over the report once again. It had already been nearly 24 hours. Nearly a whole day, and not an inch closer to finding Robbie. Everyone in the department was pitching in, cancelling leave, working overtime and days off. So far, they had slightly less than nothing. The neighbors had seen nothing, so that was a bust, even though Hathaway had sent them out to canvas again. He focused on Lawrie. Brendon Ward had visited Lawrie nearly 20 times, and had a black eye, but that was before Robbie was taken. They had already established that it must have been the guard, Wilkins, that supplied Lawrie the phone. If it wasn't Wilkins, at the very least, he would have some information about who did. Pamela Carson creeped him out almost as much as Lawrie. She needed to be looked at again. He was lost in thought running through his mental checklist when he saw Laura out of the corner of his eye, rushing to him, folder in hand.

"James!" She was frantic, breathing hard. "The blood, there's more than one type. Some is Robbie's type but there seems to be three different individuals contributing. This is good, right? This means it wasn't all his blood, that he could be just fine. The tooth, he must've knocked a tooth out of one's mouth, the pool of blood it was in wasn't his." She was talking so fast James didn't catch most of her words as individual words, just a series of sounds squished together. James took her arms and led her to a chair. She repeated the findings and James nodded.

"We just have to find the person or persons that belongs to the other blood." He added to his mental checklist and hoped he didn't sound as sarcastic to Laura as he thought he had. Ok. Lawrie had just gotten released, so it wasn't him, although James knew he was calling all the shots. He had to be. Robbie was right, this guy was a psychopath. "They needed to bring in Ward, Wilkins, and Pamela Carson. James had dispatched Lizzy and uniformed officers to go do that. He stood up and took Laura in his arms. She folded in, sniffing. She looked like she hadn't slept at all in the last 36 hours, with good reason, as he knew she hadn't. He knew he looked as bad, because he hadn't, either. He looked at his watch. Every tick on the dial seemed so much bigger, so much more ominous than usual. He was contemplating whether to bring Lawrie in, or to go to his flat. They had all seen his impromptu press conference.

Laura's phone rang. She looked at it and said, "It's Lyn." She got up from the chair and walked out of the office into the hall. James didn't think there had been a harder phone call than telling Lyn that her dad was missing. Her and Robbie's son, Ken, were trying to get flights back from Australia, but at short notice, there were no straight flights. Innocent had the City trying to help them get back, but even then, the flight would take nearly 30 hours, via Shanghai.

James stood and shrugged into his jacket as Laura walked back in. "They'll be on the way in a few hours, scheduled to land tomorrow evening." James nodded. Laura was silent again, looking down at the folder. James wanted to tell her they were doing everything they could, but it sounded like lip service, the same shit he told every victim, every family member. Was he doing everything he could, really? Well, he had basically single-handedly opened Lawrie's cell door.

A commotion from the hallway drew Laura and him from their stupor. Yelling, people holding others back. James saw Lawrie…goddamned Graham Lawrie, holding a basket of fruit. Innocent was trying to calm everyone down. Who had giving the asshole a pass? He motioned for Laura to stay and walked over to the crowd. Innocent had backed everyone up and Lawrie stood there, fruit in hand, with the fakest look of solemnity that James had ever seen. Innocent warned Hathaway with a look.

"Oh, sergeant…I mean, inspector." The words slipped out of Lawrie like oil and he smiled. "I just wanted to thank you for your tireless work to make sure justice was served." He offered Hathaway the fruit, and James stood his ground. Lawrie looked around and saw Laura. He smiled and then looked back at James. "Is Robbie Lewis here? I would like to let him know that there is no hard feelings." Lawrie scanned the crowd mockingly and then smiled at Hathaway.

James fought hard to keep cool. "You know he's not here." Hathaway stepped forward and Innocent stopped him. The look of mock indignation on Lawrie's face tipped Hathaway over the edge. He slapped the fruit out of Lawrie's hands. James was actually seeing red as he snarled at Lawrie. "What did you do to him?"

Lawrie looked around at everyone, scanning the room…with glee, James could see. "Me? Well, nothing, of course. I came straight here after I was released to thank you for getting me out."

Hathaway felt arms holding him back. His blood pulsed in his ears. His vision swirled. He vaguely heard Innocent ordering Lawrie escorted out. He could feel himself led to his office arms pulling him. He was shaking, teeth clenched so hard that his jaw ached. Laura was standing in front of him, hand over her mouth trying not to cry. James jerked away from all the helping hands and turned. Innocent gestured everyone away. She sat Hathaway down. "You're not helping anything."

"He is mocking us." James spat, anger ramping up. "He has Robbie. He came here to mock us and let us know that we helped him. That I helped him.

"Innocent nodded. "I know."

And she had nothing else to add.

\m/

Robbie heard himself groan, and it startled him back to consciousness. He seemed to be having trouble breathing in, like the air was being blocked from him, and he feebly tried to move his hand to knock away whatever was on his face. Confusion set in as he became aware that he couldn't move his arm. Then he registered the pain. The throbbing pain in his face, the sharp pain in his nose, the dull ache in his chest and sides. His splitting head. His mouth was covered with what felt perhaps like tape and the only air he could draw in whistled through his mangled nose.

The pain brought him back to full awareness. Laura. He began to panic at the thought that she was hurt. He was having trouble recalling the events leading up to this. The panic made his heart thump and, as his pulse quickened, he found he couldn't pull in enough air to meet the needs of his screaming lungs. _Calm down. Calm down. Calm down. Breath. Calm down. _He managed to regulate the air coming through his nose and the dizziness subsided.

It was dark where he was, but dim light seemed to seep in through cracks in the ceiling. Not cracks, floorboards. He was in a cellar. He began to take inventory of himself and what he could see around him. He could taste dirt and dust. His bare feet were freezing. Hands, also freezing, behind his back, tied together with the same tape that he presumed was over his mouth. No, not just over his mouth. Wrapped around his head and over his mouth. Any thoughts of finding something to pry a corner of the tape up and peel it off left before they started. He was laying on his right side, and he managed to get his legs to obey him as he used them to leverage himself and try to sit up. That not working, he settled for flipping to his other side. He was alone in the cellar. A brief flood of relief and hope washed over him and he tried to hold on to that. Laura wasn't here. At least not in the cellar.

She hadn't been home when it happened. Pictures began flipping past in his mind. Scenes. Coming down the stairs to great who he thought was Laura. A pain in his head. His legs going out from under him. Someone grabbing him. His hands throbbed as he remembered the damn good thumping he had given the guy. He could suddenly feel the scraps and bruised on his knuckles. Robbie could clearly remember gripping his own head in pain and then placing his hand on the wall. Pushing himself up. Even woozy from the half-assed blow to his head, he had launched a fist at the shape in front of him and had connected. He had fallen on top of the guy. His face. Robbie couldn't see his face clearly in his mind, and he wasn't sure if it was the concussion or that he just hadn't seen the face. Maybe it had been covered. He remembered pummeling the man, fear choking his mind as he thought about Laura. She would be home anytime.

Robbie squeezed his eyes shut. He could remember swinging and connecting his fists the guy on the ground, then hands lifting him. His back slamming on the floor. A fist hitting his face. Then again. Then again. It was in snippets, his thoughts muddled. His head pounded, his face hurt, he was finding his left side more painful than the right. He tried to objectively take stock. His nose was surely broken, left eye swelling. Sharp pain in his right side, at the very least, bruised ribs. His head. Jesus, his head hurt. He felt like he had woken up before, but drifted off to sleep again. He couldn't remember exactly, but the way he hurt and the way his head pounded, he knew it had been probably several hours since he had tried to fight them off. Laura. His eyes stung. He was so goddamned worried about her. He felt like if he knew he that she was ok, he could lay down and go back to sleep. He could barely hold thoughts as the screaming pain in his skull drove every thought out as quickly as it formed.

He once again tried to pull his feet under him. He turned on his stomach, planted his shoulder in the earth floor, and pushed himself to a sitting position. The room faded, bubbles of reality boiling at the sides of his vision matching in time throb of the pain in his head. Jesus, his head thrummed and he noticed with some curiosity that he could hear the pain ringing in his ears. He could feel bile bubbling up in his throat and he panicked again. Vomiting would kill him with his mouth taped like this. He swallowed and begged his stomach to obey. He needed to get to his feet. Blood pounded in his ears, each second drilling pain solidly between his eyes.

He thought briefly about how difficult it was to get yourself standing with your hands behind your back. He managed to get to his feet and felt a momentary rush of success until he found he couldn't stand straight. He stumbled backwards into a shelf, rattling its contents and brushing his head against the ceiling. He used the shelf as a resting point and tried to look around the room for an exit. He blinked the blood out of his eyes but found he was still having trouble seeing. His fucking head _pounded_. He heard a creak and an almighty crash that sent spasms of pain rippling over his scalp and Lawrie, Fucking Graham Fucking Lawrie, looked down at him from the cellar door at the top of the narrow, broken stairs.

"Hello, Robbie. I thought we could talk."


	3. Chapter 3

**Please leave a review. It is my first fanfic and it would be really helpful. Thanks**

Lyn couldn't be still. Her legs hadn't stopped jumping since she had taken Laura Hobson's phone call. It felt like her stomach had been filled with cold lead. She knew her father's job was dangerous. There had been a few times as a kid that she had seen her dad come in the front door with cuts, scrapes, bruises, a knock to the head. Once, with a coat pulled tight across his chest to cover the blood-stained shirt as he and her mum had hurried up to their bedroom. But, getting hurt, really hurt, was something cops did on tv. At the very least, cops that weren't her father.

Ken came to sit on the other side of her, handing her a bottle of water. Lyn really couldn't tell how her brother was doing. Was it fear, or anger, or anxiety…she was having trouble deciding. Inside the airport, with its bright lights, open shops and throngs of people, it was hard to tell what time it was. She looked back at Ken. "Are you okay?"

Ken looked down at his hands. "Yeah. I'm just in shock? I mean, shot or stabbed or something I could understand a little better than kidnapping. It just seems…surreal, you know? Real people don't get kidnapped, seriously, it is…" he let out breath without finishing the sentence. He started again, "I just…it makes me realize how much of dad's life I don't know anything about. We talk on the phone, 'hey, what's up, all is well, good to hear from you, talk to you again in a month' and I hang up and go about my own life. A few moments out of my new life to connect with my old life then I'm done and forget about it. Like a chore."

Lyn nodded and looked over at Tim, holding their sleeping son. They hadn't gotten an hour of sleep since she had heard about her missing father. They had been sitting in this airport for hours, trying to get on to last-minute flights and calculating time difference in her head before calling Laura for updates. She really was happy for her father that he had found a way to move on with life. The last few, Jesus, had it been 10 years since her mother had died? Ken and she had handled that completely different, and she couldn't help but feel sometimes that Ken had abandoned her to deal with dad. _Deal with dad_. She scolded herself for thinking that way.

But, just like Ken, she had to admit that she had created a complete life for herself that only partly included her father. It was like she saved up events in her life and only when she had enough of them in the bank, she would call her father and let him in on their life. She looked at Ken and nodded. "I know what you mean. It is so strange going from seeing him and mom every day of our lives as kids and then them not being there every day. It just gets further and further away, that life."

Ken understood. He knew he had run after his mother was killed. He couldn't stand being around his father, seeing what he was going through and feeling like he had no way to deal with it. He felt too young to be stuck with a grieving father. And, that's what it had felt like, at first. Trapped with his father, watching him grieve himself into some deep black hole of sadness. Everything had changed and he just couldn't handle that.

"He'll be all right," he said to Lyn. "He has to be." Ken had a lot of making up of time to do, and he needed to get to know his father, not as a kid but as an adult, building a relationship with his father. He found himself, for the first time in years, yearning to just hug his dad.

\m/

Robbie squinted at the light that suddenly lit the cellar as Lawrie opened the door and made his way gingerly down the poorly maintained stairs. Lawrie stopped in front of him, examining him. "Well, the guys said you got a little combative and they had to put you down, but they really did a number on you. I would say 'sorry', but it isn't in my vocabulary."

Robbie was shaking in anger. He wanted to tear into Lawrie. The girl, Pamela Carson followed Lawrie into the cellar with a small chair and a knife. She handed them to Lawrie and he grabbed Robbie by the shirt and pushed him into the chair. He took the knife and slipped it under the tape. Robbie grunted in pain as he felt the knife bite into his cheek before severing the tape. Fresh blood tickled his chin and neck as it flowed from the cut and Lawrie smiled as he ripped the tape from his mouth and around his head. "Couldn't find the scissors, you know." Robbie could immediately tell there were at least a dozen pair of scissors up those stairs.

Robbie coughed, finally able to suck in air. It felt like the first breath he had taken in days and he instantly became dizzy. He could feel himself listing to the side before Lawrie grabbed him again and straightened him in the chair. With the fresh air came a brand-new level of pounding in his head and he squeezed his eyes shut against the throbbing. It felt like his brain was trying to claw it's way through his skull so it could go hide in the dark shadows of the room.

Lawrie looked down at Robbie. "I am really surprised you were so easy to get to. You would think that a threat from someone like me would have been taken seriously. I'm a little offended." Robbie tried to reason seeing Pamela Carson there. He knew she had been, well, _off_, but pieces began to fall into place in his fractured thoughts.

"Ms. Carson, you have no idea what…" he was stopped mid-sentence with a slap from Carson, her eyes burning with rage. The contact sent new waves of pain through his face and head and he felt his stomach lurch. She spat at him, "You did this. You broke the rules. You made this personal."

Lawrie was smiling at Lewis and Robbie could see that he was proud of himself for recruiting the troubled woman into his ranks. Robbie was also certain that he would kill her at a second's notice and that she was so smitten with the psychopath that nothing Robbie could say to her would matter. He looked back at Lawrie. "Do you really think you are going to get away with this?"

Lawrie smiled again…or, still. The smug look of triumph had never left him. He was enjoying this and a chill went skittering up Robbie's spine. Lawrie said, "Oh, I'm not just going to get away with this. I'm going to get your Laura Hobson and bring her hear to watch me give you as much pain as you gave me. And maybe, you can watch as the lovely Laura and I get acquainted."

A red curtain of rage dropped over Robbie's vision. Despite the pain and dizziness, he launched himself at Lawrie. Lawrie was ready for him wrapped his arms around Robbie, pinning him to the wall. He brought a knee up and drove it into Robbie's ribs, then bounced his head off the shelving next to them. Robbie's knees buckled and he was unconscious before he hit the ground.

Lawrie laughed again, "I have thought through this day a million times over the years that you took away from me. This is going to be a blast."


End file.
